Earlier in the year projections were to have a harvest of nearly 15 billion bushels of corn. This looked likely for a short time as the crop was planted early and came up great. Normally the two ears shown above would be identical. As the plants that they came from grew from seedlings in April there has been continued stresses from lack of moisture and excessive heat. These plants were growing side by side and the one with a 7 inch ear has been competing with the one with the 3 inch ear. As time progresses that competition will become greater and the smaller one will become marginal. Where I had planned on 36,000 ears per acre I am only planning on 28,000 now.
Other reasons for the yield reduction are that in May the plant determined that it could not produce enough energy for 18 rows around and they are now 14 and 16 rows, June pollination was not 100 percent, and there will likely only be 85 million acres harvested out of 95 million planted.
As you drive you will see the cornfields with a chalkboard green color instead of the healthy dark green, you will also see sunlight shining on the dirt inside of the cornfields. This shows that the plant is not healthy and extending it's full canopy to collect the sunlight. As corn suffers more the bottom leaves turn brown up to the ear placement. Once that happens the plant can no longer fill the ear. Other plants may look green but will not have the energy and minerals to complete ear fill. We are not the only ones suffering from drought as map shows below.
The difference is that while it causes us hardship, it causes hunger for a year or years in other countries. Please consider what you can do for world hunger through FRB. http://www.foodsresourcebank.org/
Serving together, Dean Lundeen
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